Stuck With You

This play is billed as an adaptation of Edwards Lear’s classic poem The Owl and the Pussycat. I am a fan of the poem and was excited to see what writer Natalie Audley had done to bring a modern and relevant twist to the tale.

I felt this show lacked a narrative arc. Neither piece was connected to each other. It would have made much more sense if each vignette was the same story seen from two different viewpoints – one heterosexual and one homosexual.

I was disappointed. Apart from part of this play being set in a boat I couldn’t really see any connection to the timeless poem – except perhaps that in real life an owl and a pussycat could never be lovers without a whole host of problems intervening.

Stuck With You is two vignettes about different journeys to find love. The first one is a David Nicholls-esque tale of two people who meet as teenagers and become friends; Izzy played by Christabel Clark and Nick played by Winton Russell. We see them at important and poignant times in their lives - at a family wedding, before proposing, graduating, a funeral – that bring them together, sometimes even when they don’t want to see each other, hence the title. Izzy’s life is turbulent, she always feels hard done by and she goes off the rails, Nick is dependable and chooses the sensible road. I didn’t feel as if the characters developed throughout the piece. As it covers about 12 years I wanted to see Nick and Izzy change and grow but I felt they were still the same people and the same age at the end as they were at the start.

The second piece stars writer Audley and her newlywed bride Cara played by Charlotte Couture. Couture is the standout actor in this company. She showed depth, was believable when struggling with her sexuality and made this show for me. The second vignette is set in a pea green boat and Cara and Olive have just got married. There are family issues, wedding jitters and worries of what the world will think about their lesbian wedding, their drifting in the Mediterranean sea a metaphor for their drifting relationship.

I felt this show lacked a narrative arc. Neither piece was connected to each other. It would have made much more sense if each vignette was the same story seen from two different viewpoints – one heterosexual and one homosexual. I left not really caring about either couple and wondering why the pieces were shown together but with some development and more creative thought this could be an interesting idea.